Tag: chickens

I guess it’s appropriate that my first post of the year is always of either chicks or newly planted seeds. This time it’s both. Our six new Ameraucana chicks arrived yesterday, a day old, and this morning proudly stood for their first portraits. Nearby sat the pots in which I just planted seeds for tomatoes (my favorite heirlooms: Large Red and…

Once before, I’ve caught a snake in the henhouse, but never in the act of swallowing an egg. Here’s the sight that greeted me a few weeks ago when I went out to collect in the evening. This is an eastern ratsnake: the only snake in Virginia that gets longer than six feet! It is not venomous…

So many people have been wanting eggs from us that we’ve decided to expand our chicken flock, by just a bit. We currently have 15 layers, about half Rhode Island Reds and half Plymouth Barred Rocks. Yesterday morning, we picked up 6 baby Amber Links from our local feed store. This is a breed that was previously…

From the beginning, my hens have had their favorite nest boxes. They have eight to choose from, and yet more than half of them lay their eggs in the same spot. From the beginning, they have graciously taken turns, and there was never a problem–until one of the hens recently got broody. When she decided…

A month ago, we were put on notice by my husband’s dad that he was going to be giving up his chickens. He’s getting a little older and doesn’t feel up to taking care of them anymore. If we wanted them, we could have them, he said, but we’d have to act fast–he was ready…

This weekend, kept indoors by the glorious rain, I finally read a book that’s been sitting on my shelf for at least a year. One of my best friends found it at a thrift store and thought of me. She knows I love anything to do with gardening or farming, and especially with old-timey farming…